1952 M38 Donation Project

[Easypatriot]

Greetings all! It's been a while since I've been on the forums, largely due to the fact that I have sold the M1008. It went to a good home and a good friend. Another buddy of mine, however, recently received the donation of a 1952 M38. You read that right. Said buddy was in the Marine Corps, and one of the fellas from his old unit had the M38 just languishing in a back field (it had been his grandfathers) and wanted it gone. The only caveat is it needs to get restored, and he needs a ride in it. I'm going to be helping with the resto and doing the chronicle for everyone's enjoyment, so here we go!

Other than some rot in the floors and such from being outdoors, the whole vehicle is very complete. After vacuuming out more tree bark, decomposed blue tarp, rust chunks and cat turds than I thought possible, we were able to survey the damage. It looks as though only a few patches will be needed. Front seats are out and stripped, the wood bases appear salvageable. At some point in the vehicles history it was converted to 12v.... this will be rectified during the rebuild. I apologize for the current lack of pics, they will be forthcoming.

A number of spares were also included, mostly lighting and electrical, some of which we might need help identifying. Any not used in the build will be offered here first, fear not!

The wheels have been sent out for powder-coat, lets hope the green comes out right *fingers crossed*

After clearing the tub out and it still being early in the day, we decided to pull the powerplant. Everything came out smoothly, and the engine turns freely by hand. At this point, we'll be sending out the engine for machine work and gathering parts. While we do plan to use the stock cam profile, the hot rodding vibe runs deep around here, so at the minimum, expect a port job on the exhaust side.

 

[Another Ahab]

This should be good, and thanks for firing up the thread!

Just one thing, please; if you don't mind:

 

[Easypatriot]

Forgot I had these in the phone, more to come.

 

[bikeman]

Easy... some bigger ones if you could.
I have a M38, I'd be glad to help in some way. An excellent resource would be the M38 forum on G503

 

[Easypatriot]

Thanks for the advice, Bikeman. We had a fairly productive day two on the M38 yesterday. I will be posting pics shortly as soon as I figure out how to get them proper sized. I do have a question... I read in another post that if an M38A1 was passed from Army to Marine Corps in this vintage, the tell tale signs would be forest green vs. OD and that there would be undercoating present. Does this apply to M38s also? We've found undercoating, but this thing is such a mish-mash of greens, I'm not sure if there's forest or not. Also, the undercoating only appears on the rear half of the vehicle (wheel wells, frame, etc) and nothing at all up front. Pics coming soon, but does this sound like something that happened in the field, or some sort of civilian whatever?

-EDIT-

I'm taking pictures with an iPhone at the moment, and I am sending them to myself at full size, and they are coming out tiny. My vision isn't that great, so this is frustrating me too. Will be digging my camera out for the next go round, bear with me till then.

 

[Easypatriot]

So, mostly a walk-around of the vehicle for everyone. By day's end we had the windscreen off and disassembled, my OCD bits bags were piling up (I hate losing small hardware!!!) and we're getting closer to removing the tub for plasting and primer. The two main rust areas are the windscreen (not sure if it is salvageable) and the passenger footwell, which will be repaired. We've also found out that this is a '51 production M38 (early bell housing, and a few other things). The top right-most pic is the aforementioned rear fenderwell with undercoat over what appears to be forest green. The resto on this one will be in Marine Corps colors regardless, but it would be even cooler if it actually served with the Corps. The build may go back together with a late, sealed bell housing (which came with as spares) since we also have the deep water fording intake pipe. This will not be a trailer queen (speed limits allowing) and will probably see a bit of mud before all is said and done.

If anyone has something they would like a better view of, for curiosity sake or to try to identify something, let me know. I have no problem taking requests

 

[turnkey]

Now that is a fun project ...bestof luck on this one.

 

[Another Ahab]

Easy... some bigger ones if you could.
I have a M38, I'd be glad to help in some way. An excellent resource would be the M38 forum on G503

View attachment 554050


So, mostly a walk-around of the vehicle for everyone.

These are great shots, and for all of them (and the thread) thanks a million.

Only thing is, for some reason, the pics come in small scale when you select on them (contrary to habit). Wonder what this problem is about; anybody know?

 

[bikeman]

No clue on the paint change. It could be a tub from a rebuilt at some point. Or they just got the wrong paint when doing a repair of some sort...

 

[Al Harvey]

Photos and baggies are a requirement for a restoration to me.

 

[Gun Goober]

I repeat Al Harvey's coment, my garage is full of boxes with baggies of small parts. All the boxes are of the different vehicles I'm working on.

 

[Easypatriot]

So, another Sunday gone by, and we have the front clip off, tailgate off and dissasembled, a lot of the tie-downs loose, and I am SICK to DEATH of flat-head screws! Still having issues with the small pics, I am sending them to myself "full size" from my iPhone, but they still post small. I should have some more up shortly, even if they are small. I found my camera, though.... AFTER I got back to the house! By next week we should have it down to a bare tub and ready to send for blasting, plus the engine should be torn down for the machine shop. The owner of the jeep also unloaded one of his other vehicles (and a $300/mo car payment!) so we should have more capital to work with as well. As far as parts go, it looks like the distributor and fuel pump will have to go out for rebuild, and we're working with AJP for the 24v starter and generator. Everything else seems to be present.... at least so far!

 

[bikeman]

I would be sending the carb out too if possible...

 

[Another Ahab]

So, another Sunday gone by, and we have the front clip off, tailgate off and dissasembled, a lot of the tie-downs loose, and I am SICK to DEATH of flat-head screws! Still having issues with the small pics, I am sending them to myself "full size" from my iPhone, but they still post small. I should have some more up shortly, even if they are small.

Do you mean slot-drive screws (as opposed to phillips-drive), or actual flat-head screws?

 

[Easypatriot]

The carb we should be able to rebuild ourselves, bikeman, at least that is the hope. We're trying to keep as much of this in house as we can to both keep costs down and expedite completion. And Ahab, yes, slot drive screws. That hold down everything small on this junk. Everywhere. My dad always called them "flat head" and phillips, so it just stuck. Now I have to go google what a flat-head screw actually is. Still working on getting the pics bigger, but if no luck soon, I'll post what I have.

 

[Another Ahab]

The carb we should be able to rebuild ourselves, bikeman, at least that is the hope. We're trying to keep as much of this in house as we can to both keep costs down and expedite completion. And Ahab, yes, slot drive screws. That hold down everything small on this junk. Everywhere. My dad always called them "flat head" and phillips, so it just stuck. Now I have to go google what a flat-head screw actually is. Still working on getting the pics bigger, but if no luck soon, I'll post what I have.

I hear you; those can be a nightmare to deal with (especially when your screwdriver keeps sliding out of the slots). They are NO fun.

 

[Easypatriot]

Hey all!

Well, no progress today, hopefully tomorrow. Other events kept my buddy occupied today, and I don't have a key to the garage That said, I do have a question... on the Marine Corps equipment, what would be a Korean era correct undercoating? Just the rattle can (non-rubberized, I would guess) stuff from the parts store, or...? We're not at the needing it point, but we are at the making lists point, for sure. Thanks for checking in, and HOPEFULLY I will have some better, LARGER pics for everyone soon.